Red
by RoseGoldExile
Summary: As a messenger of death, it made sense that I could only see the red of his eyes. He'd earned them by killing, he was an Alpha, one that death seemed to follow. Derek was a magnet for danger and recklessness, chaos and blood. When he looked at me, I saw the hell in his eyes and thrill we both tried to fight as we fell. We were King and Queen of disaster. And I loved him.


**A/N: Yeah, I redid the chapter. It takes place after season 3A and You ALL will deal lol. No but seriously, read the authors note at the end.**

Chapter One: Wolfs Bane

Peter Hale was staring at me.

And I don't mean the "is he or isn't he" staring, I meant the full on creep stare that boys give you when they're imagining you with your clothes off. I knew it well, I got it all the time, but I didn't think Peter's motives were that shallow. If there was one thing I knew about him, it was that whatever he was seeing in me, he was making decisions and conclusions. I'd had enough.

"Problem?" I raised my eyebrows.

His smile was genuine, I hated him. "Not at all."

I rolled my eyes and moved closer to Allison.

The only reason I was here was because Allison and I were supposed to be going to get ice cream and somehow managed to get pulled into a group meeting. We were all in Dr. Deaton's office, taking up space in different parts of the room. Scott was in the center with Dr. Deaton, Stiles wasn't too far away, Isaac was leaning on the counter looking at his wolf claws, and Peter was standing in the furthest corner of the room by the back door. His eyes flitted whenever one of us spoke, and his jaw clenched whenever a question was asked.

I knew a thought process when I saw one.

And normally, I would say something. If it's one thing I've learned over the years is that when you leave too much to chance, it can always come back to bite you in the ass. It was why me and math got along so well. I hated interpretation.

Unfortunately for me, that was all anyone dealt in these days. Since discovering that Beacon Hills was pretty much werewolf central, all logic and reason had thrown itself out of the nearest window and left everyone with more tension and questions than ever.

Peter was a major source of a lot of that.

His return hadn't been something that any of welcomed with open arms. As a matter of fact, at least twice a week, I sat in on a meeting with the gang on how to possibly kill him again. The only problem is, I knew we'd never get close enough to pull it off. I knew something about Peter, but I didn't. It was something I knew like the quadratic formula only I was missing a step. It was obvious and I was missing it. I hated when that happened.

The meeting had been called because one of Dr. Deaton's connections in a city not too far from us had been having major problems as far as their werewolves. When Dr. Deaton described everything, especially when it got down to the behavior, it didn't sound like anything out of the ordinary to me. The wolves were wild, unhinged, and out of control.

It wasn't until he said they were being murdered that we all really paid attention.

Since the Alpha drama a month ago, things had semi returned to normal. After everyone either died or left, Beacon Hills became what it usually was. Boring. And while I used to hate the fact that it was so boring at one point, I welcomed it now. I missed being able to walk around outside and not having to worry about what may or may not be watching me.

"How are they being murdered?" Scott asked. "Could it be more hunters?"

Everyone in the room either did or didn't look at Allison. She held her own breath and steeled herself to the possibility of it. Allison had long ago accepted the fact that just because she and her dad had taken a different, more open minded, approach towards werewolves and hunting them that not everyone else had. We'd long since found out that there were other werewolf hunting lineages. It wouldn't surprise anyone here if some had come to Beacon Hills.

"Wolfs Bane." Dr. Deaton said. "They're caught with Mountain Ash, they're torso is cut open, and they're heart is ripped out. Their mouths are stuffed with Wolfs Bane."

"It's not another Darach thing is it?" I asked, looking up from my phone. "The last time kills had methods like that; our English teacher was making sacrifices. That's not the case this time right?"

Dr. Deaton gave me a small smile. "We'd be really unlucky if it was."

"Hunters don't go that far." Allison said, sounding almost relieved. "I mean, they slice in half sure, but the taking out the heart really isn't hunter style."

"It's not Argent Style," Isaac said. "It could still be someone else."

The room went silent again.

My phone vibrated again, and I swiped open my message. Aiden was texting me, letting me know that he and Ethan had made it to Nevada safely. After everything was done with the Alphas, Aiden wondered if he'd had any family left, but wasn't really sure how to find them. After a few web searches and some out of pocket funding, we'd managed to track a distant uncle in not too far outside of Vegas. They knew him vaguely, but they wanted to find him anyway.

And here I was again, alone.

Somehow, I wasn't upset about it. Jackson left for…well Jackson was one thing, but Aiden was something different entirely. He hadn't wanted to leave me, swore he'd back, but after years of thinking that he and Ethan were on their own and finding out that they weren't…he owed it to himself and his brother to find their uncle.

I could understand, no matter how much I hated being alone.

Another message came and there was a picture of the lights he and Ethan had passed by. I smiled and replied that he better tell me everything or I'd cut him. He asked me if I could bite him instead. I told him I'd think about it. When I looked back up, Dr. Deaton was going further into detail.

"A symbol," he said. "It's always carved onto the neck."

"A symbol of what?" Scott asked.

"I'm supposed to have a fax of it tomorrow." Dr. Deaton said. "I'm only telling you all this because it seems like something may be heading our way."

Everyone was heading out, but Dr. Deaton stopped me. "Lydia, could you stay for a second?"

Allison stopped and looked back. "I'll be in the car."

I nodded as she left.

Peter was the last one to leave, and as he headed out, he looked me over and tilted his head just a little. I folded my arms and raised my eyebrow, standing my ground. If he thought he could intimidate me, he had the wrong girl. I tilted my own head to mirror his.

"Have a good night Lydia." He said.

I rolled my eyes and turned away from him.

When the door closed and it was just me and Dr. Deaton, he led me into his office and sat down behind his desk. Personally, the thought of being a vet didn't appeal to me, but Allison thought it was amazing. Every time we came here, she noticed something different. She told me once that she considered taking the major up when she got to college. I told her that was great and all, but Physics didn't ruin my nails. I smoothed my skirt underneath my thighs and took a seat, crossing my legs.

"How are you, Lydia?" he asked in a warm voice.

"I'm fine, you?" I asked.

"I'm quite fine myself." He said. "I was wondering how you were doing with your recent Rising."

"Rising?" I asked.

He nodded. "When a wolf goes from one stage to another, they become more predatory, they apex. When Banshee comes to term, she rises."

There was that word again, the word I'd been searching and reading and researching every day since I'd heard it.

From what I'd gathered from the internet, a highly reliable source, a Banshee was some kind of fairy woman, a Sidhe, who appeared whenever someone was about to die. She let out a wail as either a warning, a sign, or a call for those either dying or those close to the dying. It was noted as being one of the loudest sounds in history, a Banshee's wail, and could be heard by the supernatural almost five hundred miles away.

Apparently, I must've been doing it wrong.

I only found the bodies when they were already dead and I didn't scream until I was in danger. The only things I knew so far were that it made it scream, led me to corpses, and kept me and anyone else who came into contact with my blood immune from lycanthropy. I found that last part out the hard way.

Which led me to thinking I had other powers as well. Communicating with the dead, being some sort of medium I guess. Peter had been able to completely manipulate me from wherever he was. After spending an entire month researching, bits and pieces of everything began to come together and fit like pieces of a puzzle.

Peter Hale knew I was a Banshee.

I had always been a Banshee. Peter's bite didn't do that.

I had an innate affinity with death.

I'm Irish.

"It's okay, I suppose." I told him. "No one's really been dying lately, so there hasn't been much use for me." Thank God.

"You know, Lydia, a Banshee's gifts aren't only specific towards locating the dead."

"That's all mine ever do, did, whatever."

Dr. Deaton shook his head. "Have you ever considered trying to hone your screaming?"

I stared at him and blinked.

"Let me just," he reached down into his drawer and pulled out a book. It was one of those creepy leather bound looking things that looked like the bibles at my grandmother's church. He slid it across the desk to me and I picked it up slowly.

"What is it?"

"Banshee's are extremely rare," he said. "The fact that you're the first mortal one I've seen or even heard of is even rarer than that. I think that if you read up on everything, maybe you'll be more inclined to learn about it."

I already wanted to learn about it. I'd meant what I said to Scott in the auditorium. If I could use my…whatever it was to help, then I would. Dr. Deaton was offering me a way to learn about them in my own way instead of always looking for death. I wouldn't pass that up.

"Thanks." I said, running my fingers over the book.

"Let me know what you think."

When I got outside, mostly everyone was still there.

"Parking lot hangouts are eighth grade you guys." I said as I walked to my car.

"Except you wouldn't be caught dead with us in eighth grade." Stiles said.

"I moved around too much." Allison shrugged.

"You guys got to hang out in eighth grade?" Isaac asked.

We all looked at him. He shrugged.

"What's that?" Scott asked.

I shrugged. "I'll let you know when I find out."

He and I looked at each other, and he got it. Since I'd made the promise to the both of us to start using my powers, Scott and I had gotten somewhat closer. He wasn't call or text to randomly hang out close, but the friendship had deepened. After this last month, we'd all kind of become a tighter knit group. Most of our messages were group texts and we ate lunch at school. It felt really good.

The boys pulled off ahead of us and Allison sighed.

"Still rough seeing Scott?"

"Still confusing being around him and Isaac." She said.

I started the car and pulled out of the Vet parking lot. I made a left on the street.

"You know, it's okay if you like him." I told her. "In girl time, you're still really single."

"Girl time?" she asked.

"Yes." I repeated. "You've given Scott that three month grace period and it's time to get back in the game."

"With the same guy who's living in his house?"

I shrugged. "Can't help who you like, I guess."

"And I still have feelings for Scott," Allison said. "Like after everything happened, I can't imagine what he's going through, especially with him being an Alpha and his father being back in town. I just miss him. I miss talking to him."

"You can still do that." I told her. "You guys are still friends."

"It's complicated." She replied.

"Only if you make it that way."

"So you're saying I should talk to Scott while I may or may not be interested in his friend?"

"I'm saying that until you've decided how you feel about the both of them definitely, there's no reason for you to take yourself through unnecessary drama."

"That easy huh?" she smiled.

"Even easier when you do it." I smiled back.

Allison looked around, then looked behind us. "Lydia, where are we going?"

It wasn't until she said something that I felt it, that pull inside of my body.

"Do you feel that?" I asked as I drove further into the darkness.

"Feel what?" Allison asked.

It was magnetic, like a pull inside of me. My consciousness wavered and I pressed down harder on the gas pedal. I knew the feeling, but it was more intense this time. All the other times it was like a cold in my body, but this was a pull. Something so strong, I couldn't fight it.

"Lydia, are you okay?" Allison sounded concerned.

"I'm fine." I said monotone.

She was pulling out her phone. "Where are we?"

"The woods," I said. "The woods near the-"

"Nemeton." She finished.

I stopped the car and got out, standing in the darkness of the night. My heels clacked on the asphalt as I took a few steps forward. Allison closed the passenger door and walked around next to me. She grabbed my hand.

"Is something in there?" she asked. When I looked down, she had a knife in her other hand.

"I think so." I told her. "But I don't know what."

I was lying, I knew what it was.

Something was dead in these woods, something major, and as Allison and I walked closer I could feel it pounding in my chest, mingling with my heartbeat. Allison squeezed my hand, but I could barely feel it. I couldn't feel anything but death and darkness and the way my legs moved. It was like I was on autopilot, moving through the forest towards a place I'd never been smell hit.

Allison recoiled and when she let go of my hand to cover her nose, I moved forward. My head tilted as I tried to figure out what I was seeing. A tree stump? One with big deep roots that spread out like veins and went into the ground. This was the Nemeton?

As soon as I got close, I saw it.

The body of the Darach, throat torn open, leaned against the stump with her eyes on the sky. Her mouth was agape, face in its natural form, scared and disfigured and missing the lips that Kali had ruined. She was still wearing the same outfit I'd last seen her in, with blood and everything else mingling with the lace. I expected her to jump up at any moment.

But that wasn't what I was seeing.

Hanging from a tree was a wolf with his torso torn open. Mountain ash sat in a circle beneath the body, glittering under the light of the moon. As I got closer, I could see the bruises on the body and the hair on his face as he'd turned into the wolf. Wolfs Bane fell from his mouth. My steps slowed as I got closer, an eerie calm coming over me.

I screamed.

No, I wailed. The force was so powerful inside of me, I felt my body hum with it. My body rocked so hard I fell to my knees as my head went upward. Louder and louder I wailed, screaming into the darkness of the forest. Allison ran up beside me and somehow, I heard her gasp.

When it stopped, when I stopped, I looked back up at the body. Allison's phone rang it was Scott.

"Get to the Nemeton, Scott." She said into her phone. "Now."

"Who is he?" I whispered slowly. "Who is he?"

"Deucalion." Another voice said.

Derek stepped out of the shadows, dressed in all black. Cora was with him, dressed the same. The both of them moved together from my left, coming towards me and examining the angles of the mangled wolf in front of me. The both of them stood on either side of me now, well, Cora stood on the other side of Allison.

"Looks like someone finally got the bastard." She said.

Derek didn't say anything, he looked down at me. "Are you alright?"

The first thing I noticed was that he'd shaven. The last time I'd seen him, he'd been going through this weird no shave phase that made him look rugged and homeless at the same time. The second thing I noticed was how pale he was against the darkness of the night. Almost as pale as I was.

The last thing, the thing that stuck out the most, were the red of his eyes.

"Lydia," he said my name in a louder tone. "Are you alright?"

I blinked a few times stared at him. "Yeah, I'm fine."

A/N:** Don't kill me okay, I just really didn't like what I posted. There were mistakes and everything and ugh. THIS was what I was going for, I hope you all love it as much as I do. Thank you so much for all the positive feedback.**

**I couldn't keep writing after what I wrote last time and it took me this long to figure out it wasn't something I was fond of. Now I can write the way I want to. Definitely. **

**I hope this answers everyone's questions. If not, I'll do it again. YES Lydia is a Banshee in this story. She and Derek will get closer, blah blah blah. **

**PM me if you hate me. Review me too.**

**Til next time.**


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